@Aeolus: Those are all valid points and I agree but despite that I still enjoy my time with XIII more than I ever tried to do it in VIII (and could never bring myself to finish that thing even though I appreciate somehow what it was trying to do).

The only thing that really bothers me about the XIII series was how they have left a decent chunk of the story stuck in novels. But then again, back in the day Square would leave allusions and chunks of the stories stuck in the Ultimania bibles so this whole deal is like an old problem in a different package. :/